At a crucial time with humanitarian aid having arrived in Gaza by sea from Larnaca on the ship Open Arms and while the German partnership in the humanitarian airlift to Gaza is underway, Olaf Scholz travels again to the Middle East.

This is his second visit to the region since the October 7, 2023, terrorist strike by Hamas in Israel, following a brief stop first in Jordan, from where the US and France have already launched their own humanitarian airlifts to the nearly two million residents. of Gaza. “More humanitarian aid must reach Gaza” was the message already sent by the chancellor at the beginning of the week.

Pressure from the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Analena Burbok, is pushing in the same direction, even speaking of the risk of a humanitarian catastrophe, referring to the recent attack on Rafa.

“An immediate humanitarian ceasefire is needed so that even more people do not die and for the hostages to be released,” says Analena Burbok in her related post on the X platform.

At the same time, the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs even proposes to Israel to open the port of Ashdod in order to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza by sea, because the improvised jetty in Gaza does not seem to be sufficient in the long term.

The chancellor’s “double message”.

As for Olaf Solz, who will meet successively over the weekend with Jordan’s King Abdullah, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the country’s president Isaac Herzog, he arrives in the region with a double message, according to an analysis on the website tagsgeschau.de : that Israel’s security against Hamas terrorism is as important as the survival of the Palestinians.

As the chancellor’s spokesman Steffen Hempstreit clarified from Berlin regarding the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip: “It remains clear that we stand closely and unwaveringly on Israel’s side. However, we ask with absolute clarity that all the conditions that must be met (for humanitarian aid) be met.”

And all this while the German government continues to emphasize that a condition for long-term peace in the region would be a two-state solution, even if such a thing seems to be far from the current reality.